spritzer

The black wire on the yellow looks to be the smallest too which is always what one wants for the ground. Using different color crimps makes no sense at all... I don't even have yellow in stock here.

That's what I'm thinking, there is just not enough gain here. The could compensate with transformers but that introduces other issues. You could compensate with the bias but that is a huge can of worms and will end with blown up drivers.

That's a brilliant idea!! They were always a bit too loose on my melon of a head.

This was introduced at High End 2025 in Munich and here is a blurb about it There are no internal pictures at all but it sure looks like they stole some of our Megatron here. Yeah, if that is the case, that is not okey. At first I didn't know what driver tubes were used and since those look a bit like 6N6pi's... I thought "well that is stupid but it might kinda work if used with some transformers". No... it is far worse. Single tetrodes, likely triode strapped, so are they trying to out compete the Woo WES for the worst all tube electrostatic amp design...or maybe the Triode H1? Time will tell but there simply aren't enough tubes here if the EL34's are used as current sources. Now we get to the proper stupid shit... why have that bias adjustment? It's the same garbage as ifi have been doing and just as retarded. It simply shows a complete lack of understanding at the principles at play here and is a good way to burn up some headphone drivers. Are they switching in different ballast resistors and limiting the output voltage swing to match the bias? No, probably not so let's pump up that X9000 to 720V and burn it up. Yup... what a brilliant idea.

I'm not surprised this happened but it just makes me sad. They just don't give a shit and sell unsafe trash at extreme prices.

We post about anything like this we can find but you can't post anything like this on Head-fi and it's been that way for close to 20 years. Those who pay Jude money can get away with most things. Other forums are not much better.

The verdict is that this is an amp that is worse than anything Stax sell, let alone the aftermarket out there but sold at a premium to generate the illusion it is good. They did claim it was an all tube amp but no idea if they still do. It was obviously a lie then but this is Woo Audio... that is nothing new.

In this role the MPSA parts are just fine

Yeah, those are the first KGST boards I designed back in the day.

Those look stunning!!! If you ever want to sell one those, hit me up. I've been going over your writeup on the Shangri-la as I want to build a clone of them but naturally improved (as the stock ones are pretty terrible). Find a broken HE1000 or a Arya Organic should get me close to the same chassis and go from there.

Capacitors aging is definitely a real thing as they are filled with electrolyte and it will leak/evaporate over time. I do recap a lot of Stax stuff so I can track how the caps are doing. I have no idea of the usage (aside from unit overall condition) but most of the HV caps hold up really well. Never seen one that is leaky (that is made in the 80's or later) but they are clearly aging though when being measured. They are also all in either pure C filter setup or a C-R-C setup so they are easy to compare. As for reforming... I'm more skeptical. Maybe if you are dealing with very old caps but anything made with modern manufacturing tech it shouldn't apply. Now for caps soldered in and sitting for a decade... too many variables really. How were they soldered would be my biggest question as some seals could have been damaged, compromising the inside.

The pcb's showed up and the "unfuck" mod has been applied. The grill does help tame the top end a little bit and the end result is quite good. Still some irregularities but I'm not bothered enough to spin up a couple of new plates to try and change that. Now would I recommend this mod to anyone? Yup, the Corina sounds like shit in stock form and this totally transforms it to something not quite perfect... but far superior to stock. Now would I recommend anybody actually being crazy enough to do this... no! The plastic discs are really glued in there and getting the shards of plastic out there... well it isn't pleasant work. Some blood was spilled and injuries sustained plus some nasty chemicals used. Now I'll go back to listening to them which I'd never want to do in stock form

The distance from earth to AC and other components is scary small there. I'd at least put in isolation slots as the voltage can creep over the PCB.

Another F-tier company.

Yeah, never seen anybody except the hack Craig actually use that one.